Hey everyone,

I've been eyeing this tractor roller for quite some time, thinking of using it as a stand for my little 44# Od'wyer. Our property was originally a strawberry farm, some twenty years, ago. Anyways, after cutting a chunk off (to suit my height), i found that there was a solid piece of 1" round bar going down the centre, length ways. Tried cutting it with a hacksaw, no luck as the blade and whole thing is too short. Haven't tried going in there with a grinder and cut off disc yet, as the cut going around the roller is too thin to get in. Maybe I'm not thinking right, but are there any other ways to cut the centre bar in half?

Are you trying to save the roller or the inner shaft?  Why can't you just use the whole thing?  It seems that the center shaft would provide more weight for the stand.  Perhaps I am not understanding the present object?

guess I would make a long handle for a small PUK saw.

Might take a while but cheaper then a flat long neck angle grinder 

Ok, so  what I understand that you have is the roller drum cut all around to the height that you need for a sand box anvil stand.  However the 1" axle is still welded to both ends of the roller drum.  To separate the two sections of the drum.   I think my first attempt would be to grind the weld between the axle and one or the other drum end to release the axle from one end of the assembly.  After grinding you may need to use a chisel to finish the cut.  This done, slide the end off.

How big is the diameter of the roller? Long Sawzall blade comes to mind 1st.

Cut around the center on the end you are not using and then pull it apart.  Once apart the shaft will be fully exposed to cut with a saws all, grinder, plasma cutter, torch or whatever.

Just pull it off! Flex yer muscles!

Haha the roller is approx. 10 1/2" in diameter, too long to get in with a hacksaw. thank you everyone for the ideas, i think i may try what Knots is recommending, but i will need to cut a slot in for the grinder to have space to make the cut. I will post images of when i have finished and the stand is mounted!! By the way, does anyone know what alloy the axle would be? I'm thinking (hoping) that it's 4140, but could it be mild bar?

I made a hacksaw by mounting a section of bandsaw blade in a bow saw frame and I used it to cut a 1.5" dia rod that a set of fork lift tines rode on. Tedious but possible. You would need a deep frame bowsaw though.

Yes, you would need a deep frame TP! in fact we've got about 4-5 old bow saws in my workshop from when the place was a strawberry farm!! here are some pics of the progress so far: the axle is actually  1.25" thick, very happy with that, as i didn't have any of that size!! I also have the whole rod, most of it anyway, to make tools with a striker! I decided to cut a square hole around the top of the axle shaft that was protruding out of the roller and the plate, this allowed me to take out all the axle, and i didn't have to cut any holes in the side of the roller to let the grinder do the cut of the axle!! might not be able to get pics up right away, i'm having some problems with that...

Cheers!

That's the go! You got the axle out eventually.
I think I recall that old roller. If it's the same one, we used to pull it behind our Hinimoto tractor on the farm. As I remember, it was a very solidly constructed thing and it would have been a challenge cutting it in half. How many cut-off wheels did you burn up in the process?

Hi Darryl,

Sorry, i should've run it through with you before i made it into a stand! The top plate is 1/2" thick, the walls are 1/4". went through about 5 wheels on my 4 inch grinder.

Made our first hot cut from the axle from the roller. Brian Brazeal style! Forged it with a friend, first time working with sledges together. Can i say that i am now addicted to swinging large sledge hammers?